Productivity – PGi Bloghttps://www.pgi.com/blog
Resources for UCaaS and Global Collaboration for Business ClientsThu, 07 May 2020 19:45:40 +0000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.19 Types of Business Meetings (and How to Lead Them)https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/9-types-of-business-meetings/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/9-types-of-business-meetings/#respondWed, 22 Apr 2020 16:49:56 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27812When you spend the bulk of your time in meetings, each meeting can start to blend into the next. Soon, at the pace you’re going, you feel like you don’t have time to set proper, focused goals for each meeting. Right? However, it doesn’t have to be that way! By knowing the nine most common types …

]]>When you spend the bulk of your time in meetings, each meeting can start to blend into the next. Soon, at the pace you’re going, you feel like you don’t have time to set proper, focused goals for each meeting. Right? However, it doesn’t have to be that way! By knowing the nine most common types of business meetings, you can automatically envision your goals for each session based on meeting type, instead of starting from scratch.

1. Status Update Meetings

Your weekly 1:1, your biweekly team sync, your Scrum “stand-up”—all of these meetings fall into the category of status update meetings. The purpose is to bring everyone at the meeting up to speed with need-to-know information. Small teams and whole organizations alike might have status update meetings, although most “all-hands” meetings wouldn’t fall into this category. (They’re more likely one of the other types of business meetings).

Focus on: Expedience

When leading a status update meeting, focus on keeping it brief and to-the-point. Don’t give participants the chance to get distracted and waste each other’s time just because you called a quick meeting.

After all, status update meetings usually have the most concrete goals of any meeting. The main idea is to exchange answers to super-straightforward questions, such as:

What did you do to further our goal since we last met?

What do you plan to do today or this week?

Is anything blocking you?

Do you need anything from me, or anyone else, in order to do your job?

Since the goal is so simple, status update meetings can easily run too long and become time-wasters. That’s the tendency, but you can prevent it by setting boundaries focused on expedience.

For example, if your company applies Scrum, you already know that the time limit on a daily status update (or “stand-up”) meeting is 15 minutes. But most status update meetings, even weekly or biweekly ones, can follow the same philosophy. Status update meetings are an opportunity to save time for other things, so keep them quick.

2. Decision-Making Meetings

In a typical decision-making meeting, someone presents options to a designated decision-maker, and that person makes a decision. Some people say that decisions are a “product” that a leader makes—and that’s a good way to think about it. The end goal of a decision-making meeting is, of course, to make the best possible decision.

Focus on: Locating Any Blind Spots

The spotlight effect is one of the biggest potential failure points of any decision-making process. The “spotlight” encircles the information you’re focused on at the time. It’s what you see in your purview—the resources you already have for making your decision. So, that spotlight governs the decisions you consider viable. Failing to explore the darkness outside of that spotlight makes you vulnerable.

Falling victim to the spotlight effect means making a decision based on that information without looking beyond the possibilities you can see in the moment. For example, if you’re starting an e-commerce store, but you only know about one e-commerce platform, you might miss the opportunity to get a better price or product. If you seek advice from someone with experience in e-commerce instead, you might find a platform that’s truly the perfect fit for your needs, avoiding the consequences of the spotlight effect.

So, before making an important decision, especially about a problem you’re solving, you need to move that spotlight around. That way, you can illuminate a more comprehensive buffet of options. That’s how you can avoid letting your personal blind spots weaken you, your team, or your business.

Seeking expertise is one of the best ways to do that. During a problem-solving meeting, ask yourself, “Who’s the expert on this? What expertise can I bring in to help me understand this problem?” Make sure you tap into the expertise of your team members and other allies to the fullest extent. This way, you’ll have the most thorough possible overview of the options available, and you can avoid risks in your decision-making process.

3. Planning Meetings

As a fundamental part of project management, planning meetings bring team members together around a step-by-step plan designed to achieve a specific goal. A single project can certainly involve more than one planning meeting, so think of each planning meeting in terms of that particular goal.

Focus on: Who Does What By When (WDWBW)

Ideally, at the end of a planning meeting, everyone should know the plan. That includes knowing which part of the plan they’ll “own.” That’s why, during planning meetings, you can get a lot more done by staying focused on “Who Does What By When.” In fact, the developers at Microsoft built a functionality for this into Microsoft Project: you can create a “who does what when” report if you use that tool.

In other words, make sure everyone leaves the meeting knowing their marching orders and the timeframe in which they’re expected to complete them. If you’re running a planning meeting on video, keeping and sharing a recording or automated transcription of the meeting can help with future accountability.

4. Collaboration Meetings

The purpose of a collaboration meeting is to produce a deliverable as a team. For example, if you meet to co-create a document, webinar, or creative asset. That’s a collaboration meeting. You could also collaborate on something more high-level, like a marketing campaign.

Many creative teams, marketing teams, sales teams, and legal teams, among others, do a large amount of their work collaboratively. That’s why it’s important to identify collaboration meetings as one type of meeting and plan for them accordingly. As part of the planning, make sure all your team members have the necessary collaboration tools at their fingertips, including both technology and the relevant documents or assets.

Focus on: The Mutual Goal

In our post about what makes a great collaborator, we shared several ways to avoid ruffling feathers while collaborating. If you have experience collaborating, you know that a blend of “people skills” come into play, and it takes practice to become a truly great collaborator who inspires and motivates everyone else on the team.

That said, there’s one important thing to remember and focus on: the mutual goal, or end result, matters more than anything else. That goal matters a lot more than individuals’ egos. It also matters more than any one idea or element of the project. If you can get this point across and keep the conversation focused on the shared goal (or deliverable), your collaboration meeting will run smoothly.

5. Presentations or Trainings

Presentation-type meetings include sales demos, team training, onboarding training, webinars, workshops, and general informational sessions. Presentations and trainings come in all shapes and sizes, from 1:1 to all-hands. Basically, it’s any meeting in which a clearly defined presenter shares materials with the group, or maybe a few presenters speak as part of a joint presentation or panel discussion.

Focus on: Keeping Listeners Engaged

If you’re taking center stage, you want people to come away with positive memories of what you said. The best way to do that is to focus on one goal: keeping listeners engaged.

Whether you do it through realtime polls, multimedia, or other engagement tactics, if you’re leading a presentation or training, be interesting! Put yourself in your listeners’ shoes, and bring in the kind of elements you wish people would use in their presentations.

Here are just a few examples of things you can do to keep listeners engaged:

Use plenty of pictures.

Ask questions. If the meeting is virtual, engaging people with questions via the chat box—even fairly simple questions—goes a long way.

6. Problem-Solving Meetings

People call problem-solving meetings during emergencies, and also when a general business issue needs a solution. Big picture, the goal of a problem-solving meeting is to understand the problem, evaluate the potential solutions, and decide on a solution. You can think of them as a type of decision-making meeting,

A problem-solving meeting often happens before the planning meetings start. After the team decides on a solution, they’ll jump into a planning meeting to map out the implementation of that solution.

Focus on: What Caused the Problem

“Firefighting” and instant, band-aid-style solutions can work when you’re extremely short on time—but they don’t work in the long term. That’s why, if at all possible, a problem-solving meeting should aim for a complete understanding of what caused the problem. By understanding the causes of the problem, you can build a long-term solution, not just a short-term one.

For example, if your team went over-budget this quarter, cutting costs in the coming quarter will solve the problem in the short term. However, to resolve the issue for the long term, you want to address the reason why you went over-budget. You want to find and mend any deficiencies in your processes and operating principles.

Often, the full “stack” of causes extends beyond the obvious. For example, many companies are over-paying for services that they don’t really need—or for which cheaper (or free) alternatives exist. Budget optimization starts with identifying these types of costs, which are often the deeper causes of budgetary problems.

When you identify all the causes of a problem, not just the ones that seem immediately obvious, you can build a long-term solution and make your company more resilient.

7. Brainstorming Meetings

Brainstorming is an open-ended process that’s usually associated with more creative work. In a brainstorming meeting, people come together to bounce ideas around and bring them out into the open, so that the best ideas can rise to the surface and eventually come to fruition. You might brainstorm for solutions to a specific problem, or you might have a broader brainstorming session around a topic, such as “improving our branding” or “better customer service.”

Focus on: A Friendly Atmosphere

The best brainstorming happens in a low-pressure environment when everyone feels that they’re able to contribute. To cultivate this environment as a leader, focus on making the atmosphere friendly. Bring snacks. Tell a joke. Encourage timid people to speak up, and ensure that everyone has a chance to speak. Set a tone that suggests, “not every idea will work for us, but we want to hear them all.” If you have a wacky idea that you’re not sure will resonate, lead by example: toss it out there, and show a willingness to laugh at yourself. Make sure people know it’s okay to share an idea that’s not perfect—after all, that’s the point of brainstorming.

Here are a few more great rules of thumb to set the stage for brainstorming:

Focus on quantity, not quality.

Don’t analyze. The goal now is to get ideas out there—the time to analyze, iterate, and prune will come later.

The crazier, the better. Encourage people to think big and say whatever crazy-sounding thing might come to mind.

Instead of voting on ideas right away, consider sending out a poll or survey after the meeting to ask the group which ideas have the most potential.

8. Team-Building Meetings

Team-building meetings can happen on-site, off-site, in small groups, or as an all-hands occasion. In a team-building meeting, you might do some structured activities to build up trust and communication among the team. Or, you might have a holiday party or team happy hour, where team members can mingle and maybe even introduce each other to friends and spouses.

Regardless of your workplace culture, you probably want a tight-knit team of people who care about each other and have each other’s backs. If that’s a goal for you, you need to have team-building meetings from time to time.

Focus on: Fun and Games

Even if you’re doing on-site team-building “exercises,” make sure people have a fun time. Otherwise, you won’t accomplish that core goal of bringing the team closer together.

Virtual team-building, which has become more important than ever, comes with another layer of challenges. However, “challenging” is not the same as “impossible.” Virtual teams can, and do, bond. Here are a few ways remote colleagues can build themselves up as teams.

9. Feedback or Debrief Meetings

Last but not least among types of business meetings: feedback meetings or debriefings. Both of these flavors of meetings fall into the same general category because they involve talking about past events.

Focus on: The Future

Even though you’re talking about things that happened in the past, feedback and debrief meetings should look ahead to the future. Whether the news is good or bad, you want people looking forward: you don’t want them feeling discouraged, and you also don’t want high-performers to rest on their laurels. So, make sure to emphasize future expectations and plans along with any information about past events. This will go a long way toward keeping your team upbeat and motivated, regardless of what’s happened historically.

Harness These Insights

Now that you know the nine types of business meetings, you can apply this framework to your everyday life. Before your next meeting, identify which of these nine meetings it is, based on its purpose.

Once you know which type of meeting it is, remember the focal point we listed for that type of meeting, and lead the meeting with that in mind. You might feel surprised by how much of a difference this can make.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/9-types-of-business-meetings/feed/0New to Remote Work? Helpful Resources and Online Courseshttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/new-to-remote-work-helpful-resources-and-online-courses/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/new-to-remote-work-helpful-resources-and-online-courses/#respondTue, 07 Apr 2020 16:53:46 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27786If you don’t have much experience working remotely, making that change suddenly is jarring. Your routines, habits, and workflows are disrupted significantly. However, there’s good news. People with lots of remote work experience have shared their knowledge to help others learn the necessary skills. Here are some great resources to check out instead of trying …

]]>If you don’t have much experience working remotely, making that change suddenly is jarring. Your routines, habits, and workflows are disrupted significantly. However, there’s good news. People with lots of remote work experience have shared their knowledge to help others learn the necessary skills. Here are some great resources to check out instead of trying to re-invent the remote work wheel.

Staying Productive at Home

If you’re finding there’s a learning curve for staying productive while working from home, you’re not alone. Most people will feel that way at some point. Here are some great resources to help:

Two superb video-based courses on productivity are available for free right now.

Unplanned Remote Leadership and Management

Gitlab, another fully remote company, has produced some of the best remote leadership resources. Here is a fantastic 17-minute interview with the CEO, Sid Sijbrandij. In that interview, you’ll get the core principles of remote management that enable Gitlab to operate with 160+ employees in 160+ different locations.

For reading material, Harvard Business Review published a thorough and practical guide to managing your team after going remote on short notice. Co-written by three management experts, the article explains how to implement leading remote management practices (e.g., daily check-ins, rules of engagement, face-to-face supervision, and team-building). We also loved this great guide from Gallup.

Mastering Video Meetings

On the My Meeting Help knowledge base, we’ve released a comprehensive, COVID-specific guide to virtual meeting best practices. Whether you’re running a 1:1 video conference or hosting a webcast with 10,000 participants, this guide will help you hold the most efficient possible meetings. There’s also advice to help you avoid technological issues, such as congested phone and internet networks.

If you’re looking for a free, scalable, all-in-one tool for remote communication and collaboration, you can use GlobalMeet for free.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/04/new-to-remote-work-helpful-resources-and-online-courses/feed/0Business Readiness with GlobalMeethttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/business-readiness-with-globalmeet/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/business-readiness-with-globalmeet/#respondWed, 26 Feb 2020 20:02:00 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27649As a global company, we know all too well what it’s like when a business is affected by a natural disaster or global crisis. Our teams are navigating a world where forest fires are commonplace and the threat of Coronavirus is very real. Just like many other organizations around the world, we’ve had to adapt …

]]>As a global company, we know all too well what it’s like when a business is affected by a natural disaster or global crisis. Our teams are navigating a world where forest fires are commonplace and the threat of Coronavirus is very real. Just like many other organizations around the world, we’ve had to adapt to ensure our business continues to operate smoothly and most importantly keep our employees safe.

With 29 years operating as a global organization, we’ve learned a lot and would like to share our knowledge on how to keep business operations going when crisis hits.

Safety is First and Foremost

While keeping business operations going is important, your business can’t operate without its employees. Which is why as an organization, keeping people safe should be your number one priority. When natural disasters or global crises occur, put employees first and make sure everyone is safe and accounted for. From there, we assess next steps to ensure our employees can work safely in their environments.

Proactive Thinking is Key

When a natural disaster or global crisis occurs, you don’t want to be caught off guard. Before your team is affected by inclement weather, virus outbreaks or other unforeseen disasters, it’s important that you keep lines of communication open, have a emergency plan in place and understand the threats to your business.

According to a recent announcement from the CDC, officials are already planning for a world-wide pandemic with the spread of the Coronavirus. They are recommending companies around the world look at teleworking options.

If your company already has an emergency plan in place, we recommend making sure your plan includes scenarios for remote working. Having an emergency plan in place is only a part of being proactive. Employees must be knowledgeable of the plan and communication from leaders in the organization prior to the disaster is critical. That way employees can properly prepare for next steps.

Consider hosting a webcast training or town hall event to inform employees of emergency plans and critical business decisions. When you’re proactive about emergency situations, you can plan effectively to minimize any disruption to your business operations. We want to help keep your employees safe and keep your business operations running smoothly.

Empowering Employees to #WorkWherever

When disaster strikes, it can be very difficult and dangerous for employees to commute to the office. Empower employees to work remotely using collaboration and communication tools to keep your business operating during times of crisis. PGi’s goal is helping people connect, even when the circumstances sometimes make it difficult.

Our comprehensive collaboration and unified communication solutions allow employees to work anywhere there is an internet or phone connection. Employees can still have face-to-face meetings with video conferencing or screen share to share materials or present information. Even if your organization promotes in-office work, having collaboration tools that allow employees to work remotely is vital to keep your business operating at 100%. These tools allow employees to make smarter decisions about whether they should work from home or come into the office. Does your business have communication tools to empower employees to #workwherever in times of crisis?

We understand that when disaster strikes, it can be crippling to a business. With a plan in place and the right communication tools to help you out, you can continue business without disrupting operations. We’re here to help.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/business-readiness-with-globalmeet/feed/04 Psychological Findings to Know Before Your Next Online Meetinghttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/4-psychological-findings-to-know-before-your-next-online-meeting/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/4-psychological-findings-to-know-before-your-next-online-meeting/#respondWed, 26 Feb 2020 17:48:57 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27643Did you know clinical psychologists have conducted hundreds of studies focused on workplace meetings? It makes sense: work is such an important part of our lives, and meetings are a big part of many jobs. It’s natural that researchers would want to explore the psychological principles that are at play during online meetings. Admittedly, we went down …

]]>Did you know clinical psychologists have conducted hundreds of studies focused on workplace meetings? It makes sense: work is such an important part of our lives, and meetings are a big part of many jobs. It’s natural that researchers would want to explore the psychological principles that are at play during online meetings.

Admittedly, we went down the rabbit hole on this one—there’s a lot to learn. Here are four of the best takeaways to use in your next online meeting.

Emotional displays are contagious.

We all notice each other’s facial expressions, gestures, tone, and speaking cadence, but what we don’t always notice is how our own emotions change as a result. Research has shown that emotions displayed by others, whether good or bad, are essentially contagious.

When you’re looking at a person rather than a person’s face on a screen, it can be a bit easier to speak with enthusiasm. However, since your emotional display will be contagious, it’s no less important to show your excitement during an online meeting. So, don’t be shy about bringing your expressions into an online meeting to spread those good vibes.

Taking turns speaking results in higher-quality online meetings.

Researchers at MIT have discovered that two factors account for 60% of the variance in meeting quality. Those factors are:

Taking equal turns so that everyone gets to contribute their ideas.

Periods of excited “talking over” chattiness, which consist of side conversations that serve to validate the ideas and build consensus.

Taken together, these two factors do a lot to determine the quality of meetings. The researchers added that encouraging all participants to contribute, in turn, is “particularly effective for improving teleconference meetings among geographically distributed groups.”

Poor audio quality causes physical stress.

If your microphone is spotty or damaged, it would be smart to get a better one before your next online meeting. That’s because poor audio quality has been proven to produce physical signs of stress in listeners. Even more worrisome, it’s likely that the listeners won’t even realize that they’re experiencing these heightened stress levels. Therefore, they won’t actively inform you about the problem. Prevent this issue before it ever comes up by ensuring your audio is clear and uninterrupted during online meetings.

This does strongly suggest that using video during an online meeting can make the meeting more productive. We specialize in online meeting tools, including HD video conferencing. Make your meetings more immersive and engaging with video conferencing.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/4-psychological-findings-to-know-before-your-next-online-meeting/feed/0CEOs Reveal the Everyday Habits That Bring Successhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/ceos-reveal-the-everyday-habits-that-bring-success/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/ceos-reveal-the-everyday-habits-that-bring-success/#respondThu, 20 Feb 2020 17:36:14 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27631It seems like every great thinker in history has something to say about habit. It’s no secret that today’s top leaders and achievers, including CEOs, rely on good habits to stay productive. Here are some of the greatest daily habits that our favorite CEOs can’t live without, courtesy of Malak Saleh and Christina DesMarais of Inc. Exercise Of all …

]]>It seems like every great thinker in history has something to say about habit. It’s no secret that today’s top leaders and achievers, including CEOs, rely on good habits to stay productive. Here are some of the greatest daily habits that our favorite CEOs can’t live without, courtesy of Malak Saleh and Christina DesMarais of Inc.

Exercise

Of all the advice CEOs give, this one almost always tops the list. Exercise was cited as the #1 most indispensable habit by Elliot Tomaeno of ASTRSK, Hannibal Baldwin of SiteZeus, and Eric Garrett of The Garrett Companies, among countless others.

PGi’s Don Joos makes exercise productive for his mind as well as body by listening to View From The Top, the podcast by Stanford Graduate School of Business while he runs.

Know What’s Trending

“I spend an hour or two every day keeping up with tech news on Twitter,” says Michael Bruch of Willow. “It’s not good to obsess over what other people are doing, but staying informed is certainly important.”

Make the Most of Your Drive Time

“I spend about 45 minutes driving to and from work each day. I can spend that time listening to music or talk radio, but I choose to spend it listening to business books and self-improvement books,” says George Zlatin of Digital Third Coast. “Over the last two and a half years, I have listened to nearly 40 audiobooks. These books have given me incredible insight into how to run my business and sharpen my skills.”

Also making the most of his drive time, David Goldin of Capify uses his car commute to get meetings out of the way. “I like to schedule some of my most important calls during my morning drive to the office,” Goldin says. “I find this time very useful for scheduling calls that are uninterrupted.”

Similarly, PGi’s Don Joos takes calls on the way into the office, but if he finds some free time he’ll tune into Grateful Dead.

It is critical to use communications tools that enable you to easily start or attend calls and meetings from anywhere so you can maximize your time while stuck in traffic on your daily commute.

Make Every Meeting the Second Meeting

This gem comes from Craig Boundy of Experian, which was named one of the world’s top 100 most innovative companies by Forbes.

“Always have papers before a meeting, read them, and never just do a page-turn,” Boundy advises. “That way, every meeting is really the second meeting.”

It’s a brilliant way of framing a meeting and makes a lot of sense when you stop to think about it. So many meetings start with a review of a document or transcription. Those documents could’ve easily been shared in advance, resulting in a smoother workflow. Why not make that a standard practice?

Talk to at Least One Customer Every Day

“It’s by far the most efficient and productive way to gather feedback on the company, and to understand the business more deeply,” says Navid Hadzaad of GoButler. “My company is nothing without its users, and the information I receive from customers is hugely influential.”

Harness These Habits

Like anything else, establishing a new habit or routine starts with the first step. Why not take that first step today? Even adopting just one or two of the habits on this list can help you and your company flourish.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2020/02/ceos-reveal-the-everyday-habits-that-bring-success/feed/0Email is Your #1 Biggest Time Sinkhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/12/email-is-your-1-biggest-time-sink/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/12/email-is-your-1-biggest-time-sink/#respondTue, 17 Dec 2019 18:42:43 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27514Brace yourself. You’re about to know exactly how much of your life you’re losing to email. If you’re an average professional, you check your email 15 times a day. You then spend 64 seconds recovering from checking your email. Then you repeat that process. In the end, you spend 28% of your workweek managing email. If you’re a CEO, that number …

If you are thinking, “I spend way too much of my life on email,” you’re not alone. But everyone’s so entangled in the email culture—can you actually escape the vicious cycle? Yes, you can. Here’s how.

Define an Email Schedule

You need to put email where it really belongs on your list of priorities. A great way to do this is to set an email schedule. For most people, checking email once every hour is more than enough. You might even be able to pull off a twice-per-day schedule.

Start by deciding what times you’re going to check your email. Try checking email at 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. Commit to that. You have more important things to do with your time.

Set Other People’s Expectations

It’s scary, but trust me—people will respect you for this.

Once you’ve determined your email schedule, communicate directly about it with everyone you work with. Explain that you’re more productive when you limit your email use.

For example, you can tell your clients or colleagues that they can expect a response to email within five hours. Encourage people to call you if something urgent comes up.

If you’re an executive, consider rolling this out to your team by setting a service level agreement (SLA) for email. Make it clear that staff should respond to emails within, say, one business day. Consider pairing this SLA announcement with a webcast about how to use email more effectively. Then, sit back and watch productivity soar.

Avoid the email back-and-forth and consider the best medium for the task at hand.

Many of our clients use our video conferencing services to do exactly that. With one click, they exit their inboxes and get into a meeting where teamwork can happen in real time. Video conferencing services also integrate with email, so one-off and recurring meetings are easy to schedule and attend.

Want to enjoy the benefits of better collaboration (and waste less time on email)? Learn how GlobalMeet Collaboration can help.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/12/email-is-your-1-biggest-time-sink/feed/0The True Cost of Inefficient Communicationhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/11/the-true-cost-of-inefficient-communication/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/11/the-true-cost-of-inefficient-communication/#respondTue, 19 Nov 2019 20:43:50 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27441Even highly productive people end up wasting some time while they’re at work. We’re talking about inefficient communication. This includes excessive email back-and-forth, using too many communication apps, and the lack of full collaboration due to inadequate communication tools. Several major research studies have profiled the largely preventable cost of inefficient communication, most notably the business intelligence firm SIS …

]]>Even highly productive people end up wasting some time while they’re at work. We’re talking about inefficient communication. This includes excessive email back-and-forth, using too many communication apps, and the lack of full collaboration due to inadequate communication tools.

Several major research studies have profiled the largely preventable cost of inefficient communication, most notably the business intelligence firm SIS International Research. As a summary of the takeaways, here’s what poor use of communication tools could realistically be costing your company.

Tool-based barriers to collaboration: Each respondent wasted 165 hours per year ($6,105) “attempting to address issues of inaccessibility, or other communication-tool based lack of full collaboration with colleagues.”

Waiting for information: Each respondent wasted 175 hours per year ($6,475) “waiting for information from others that they have attempted to reach live multiple times using multiple methods.”

Inefficient coordination: Each respondent wasted 185 hours per year ($6,845) “attempting to coordinate communications between team members.”

For a medium-sized business with 100 employees, the estimated cost is $524,569 per year—and that’s assuming only 20% of those employees actually experience these problems! If 50% of your employees experience these barriers, the cost quickly climbs to more than a million dollars.

Prevent This

The truly mind-boggling thing about all this research is that, by and large, these costs are easy to prevent. Moving to unified communications as a service (UCaaS)—an all-in-one communications platform—dramatically reduces communications pain. Here’s how:

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/11/the-true-cost-of-inefficient-communication/feed/0Productivity Tips From Elon Muskhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/08/productivity-tips-from-elon-musk/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/08/productivity-tips-from-elon-musk/#respondFri, 30 Aug 2019 14:57:56 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=27272Few people can cut through corporate inertia like Elon Musk. In particular, the eccentric billionaire has become known for candidly speaking his mind on the topic of productivity. Here are a few of his more salient suggestions. When a rule doesn’t make sense, change it. “If a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous, such that it …

]]>Few people can cut through corporate inertia like Elon Musk. In particular, the eccentric billionaire has become known for candidly speaking his mind on the topic of productivity. Here are a few of his more salient suggestions.

When a rule doesn’t make sense, change it.

“If a ‘company rule’ is obviously ridiculous, such that it would make for a great Dilbert cartoon, then the rule should change,” Musk wrote in a company-wide message to Tesla’s staff.

Musk’s words are funny, but his insight is serious. It’s amazingly easy for employees, teams, and eventually whole companies to take the “path of least resistance” by following unproductive rules. A culture that can eliminate such rules will eliminate needless friction.

Crush complaints with creativity.

“Complaints are a sign that there is a problem to be solved,” Musk explained. “Paying attention to complaints is a great way to find innovative ideas that people actually need.”

Eliminate communication barriers.

A successful company empowers people to communicate fluidly across departmental barriers. While management is essential (Tesla isn’t a “flat” or non-hierarchical company), it should be easy for people in different parts of the company to collaborate.

Musk framed this idea memorably: “If, in order to get something done, an individual contributor has to talk to their manager, who talks to a director, who talks to a VP, who talks to another VP, who talks to a director, who talks to a manager, who talks to someone doing the actual work, then super dumb things will happen.”

Don’t let failure be a taboo.

What can stop your brightest employees from doing their best work? The fear of taking a risk that ends in failure.

“If something’s important enough, you should try,” Musk said on 60 Minutes, “even if the probable outcome is failure.”

At many companies, leaders understand that the risk of failure is an unavoidable part of peak productivity. However, that understanding isn’t always communicated to employees, so they shy away from taking risks that could yield great rewards.

To dissolve the stigma around failure, consider a company-wide webcast on this theme. Encourage your company’s leaders to open up about their own past failures and what they learned from them. When they’re less afraid of taking risks, your employees might surprise you with their talent!

We’ve designed our platforms around productivity strategies like these. Learn more here.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2019/08/productivity-tips-from-elon-musk/feed/0What Is the Ideal Office Temperature for Productivity?https://www.pgi.com/blog/2018/06/what-is-the-ideal-office-temperature-for-productivity/
https://www.pgi.com/blog/2018/06/what-is-the-ideal-office-temperature-for-productivity/#respondThu, 28 Jun 2018 15:32:09 +0000https://www.pgi.com/blog/?p=26307The alarm goes off. After struggling to get out of bed, employees are hit with another challenge: What is the appropriate outfit for today’s weather – outside and inside of the office? Not only is office temperature important for employee comfort, but it can also directly affect efficiency. A CareerBuilder survey reported that 53 percent …

]]>The alarm goes off. After struggling to get out of bed, employees are hit with another challenge: What is the appropriate outfit for today’s weather – outside and inside of the office? Not only is office temperature important for employee comfort, but it can also directly affect efficiency. A CareerBuilder survey reported that 53 percent of employees say they are less productive when the office is too cold, raising the million-dollar question: What is the ideal office temperature?

Here are some definitive thoughts on the age-old debate.

According to the PGi Community

When we asked our customers if temperature affects productivity in their workplaces, they all agreed that it most certainly does. Compiling their perspectives, it became readily apparent that improper office temperatures, whether too hot or too cold, drive employees to focus on finding ways to regulate their body temperature. This in turn drastically hinders workflow.

According to the Research

Early research on the hotly-debated question concluded that cooler temperatures tended to increase and encourage productivity. Over time, however, research shows that the ideal office temperature may actually be warmer than originally believed.

A month-long office temperature study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, for instance, discovered fewer typing errors and higher productivity rates in employees working at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. At this warm temperature, the researchers observed employees typing 100 percent of the time with a 10 percent error rate. To compare with the chilly alternative, workers typed about 54 percent of the time with an error rate of 25 percent when the temperature was set to 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Along with productivity, these warmer temperatures can activate feelings of trust and empathy towards our peers. Thus, a warm office environment can further encourage fulfilling interpersonal connections between employees.

Of course, we all know how uncomfortable and distracting a too-hot environment can be. For now, it’s all about finding the happy medium, rather than reaching the extremes of office tundra or desert. To foster a pleasant and productive working space for your employees, set the office thermostat to a sweet spot between 72 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

]]>https://www.pgi.com/blog/2018/06/what-is-the-ideal-office-temperature-for-productivity/feed/0Fidgeting at Work?https://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/11/fidget-toys-workplace/
Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/fidget-toys-workplace/Fidget toys and other sensory gadgets are continually making waves around the world and in businesses today. Yes, we are also referring to the same ever-so-popular fidget spinners that broke the internet this year and eclipsed $1B in sales worldwide. Although some identify them as toys just for kids, research shows the demand is continually …

]]>Fidget toys and other sensory gadgets are continually making waves around the world and in businesses today. Yes, we are also referring to the same ever-so-popular fidget spinners that broke the internet this year and eclipsed $1B in sales worldwide. Although some identify them as toys just for kids, research shows the demand is continually increasing more and more in the workplace and that they are not just a temporary fad.

In fact, fidgeting with sensory toys in the workplace has been around for quite a while. From squeezing stress balls and excessive pen-clicking to paper clip dismemberment (a personal favorite of mine), chances are you have fidgeted at one time or another – especially if you spend a lot of time on conference calls every day. So, let’s take a deeper look at the background of this trend and the implications it could have on productivity in the workplace.

How Fidgeting Became a “Thing”

Contrary to widespread belief, fidgeting didn’t start with the spinner craze. For many, fidgeting, or using some type of instrument to keep your hands occupied, was and is something to do while working to improve productivity. For me, all I need is some thinking putty or the occasional doodle on a piece of paper to keep me focused while on a long conference call. For others, and more recently for children in school, these toys have also been used as a productivity tool to help with ADHD.

Studies have shown that fidgeting, increases the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in the same way ADHD medications do. These chemicals help sharpen focus and increase attention, and are the same reason why so many businesspeople are using fidget toys to help stay focused at work.

Fidgeting at Work

Reports show that adults all over the world are fidgeting away at work today and enterprises should embrace this trend that helps employees be more productive. However, these helpful tools shouldn’t be our primary focus – meaning if all we do is fidget, then it can distract us from our work. These toys should complement our focus via “back tasking” or multitasking that is done in the background, rather than be the center of our attention.

There’s no way, as humans, that we can laser focus all our attention on one thing, at any single time. Even when we’re concentrating on a specific task, we are often still taking in auxiliary noise and information in the background. This is called floating attention and it happens unconsciously. So, when you use sensory tools like doodling or playing with thinking putting, it helps us focus more on the task at hand.

Has it Taken Over Your Office?

Do you use sensory gadgets or toys at work to help you focus? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Share your gadgets and ideas with us via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

]]>Tips to Beat the Fourth-Quarter Blueshttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/10/tips-beat-4th-quarter-blues/
Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/tips-beat-4th-quarter-blues/I’ve got the Fourth Quarter Blues. And no, I’m not talking about the song – although it’s a pretty catchy tune. I’m talking about the all-hands-on-deck, end-of-year, home-stretch kind of fourth-quarter blues. That time of year when the calendar starts to wind down and business teams all around the world are hustling to close one …

]]>I’ve got the Fourth Quarter Blues. And no, I’m not talking about the song – although it’s a pretty catchy tune. I’m talking about the all-hands-on-deck, end-of-year, home-stretch kind of fourth-quarter blues. That time of year when the calendar starts to wind down and business teams all around the world are hustling to close one last deal or secure one last win or even start in-depth planning for the next calendar year.

In addition to the robust work schedule, there’s also the added pressures of the impending holiday season around the corner. In many homes, that can include the kids being out of school for winter break, shopping for the family and organizing travel plans.

Although things simmer down a bit for many in Late November and early December, sometimes it can feel like the start of the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year. In fact, this survey shows that four out of 10 people feel some kind of extreme stress or dread coming out of their fall breaks, heading into the final months of the year.

So how do we keep our composure and power through the end of year blues without losing momentum and maintaining productivity? Here are a few tips to keep you motivated in the Q4 stretch.

Take a Walk

It may sound totally cliché, but walking in the middle of your workday has a ton of benefits. If it’s cold outside, you may opt to take a quick lap around your office or a short run to your car and back. Either way, it gets your muscles moving and your blood pumping – both brain power-boosting activities.

To Meet or Not to Meet

It seems like there’s always a crunch for time at the end of the year. So, before you book a meeting, ask these questions to determine if it will really advance your efforts:

Do I have a clear agenda for this meeting?

Do I know what my desired outcomes are for this meeting?

Will this meeting help advance immediate action items for me and/or my team?

If you can answer no to these questions, write down any updates or jot down your questions and save them for your next meeting.

PGi is in the business of powering millions of conferences each week, but even we recognize that work can get done with additional productivity tools like IM or a good project management tool to keep tasks moving along.

And, When You Do Meet…

When it’s actually beneficial to meet and if it’s not an in-person meeting, make sure you’re set up with a conferencing tool that has exceptional audio quality. It may sound crazy, but studies have shown that when audio quality is poor it can cause undue stress and have negative effects on your health in the long run. So, opt for a better audio experience to ensure you don’t get unnecessarily bogged down with static and other productivity-killing background noise.

Hygge it Out

We talked about the concept of Hygge in a previous post, but it goes without saying that sometimes you just need to take a moment to Zen out at work. When your workspace is inviting, comfortable and well-organized, you’d be surprised what it can do for both your mood and efficiency.

Work from Home

It goes without saying that sometimes you just have to get away from your desk and rock it out at home. According to our annual Global Telework Survey, the average worker commute is between 30 and 60 minutes, or more, daily. And according to some research, “longer commutes are systematically associated with lower rates of well-being”.

With my office location just blocks from some of Atlanta’s major shopping hubs, traffic in the area can more than double with cars filled with eager holiday consumers. I’ll definitely be looking to telecommute more to help decrease my commute and stress levels.

If you’re feeling the fourth-quarter blues and need a pick-me-up, try some of these tips out and let us know how they work for you.

]]>The Neuroscience of Motivation and How to Increase Motivationhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/08/neuroscience-motivation-increase-motivation/
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/neuroscience-motivation-increase-motivation/I’m sure everyone here is familiar with how hard it is to get work done when you’re feeling unmotivated. Call it laziness, procrastination or what have you, when motivation is lacking, work simply can’t be done. It’s easy to write off a lack of motivation as an excuse to partake in laziness, but the cause …

]]>I’m sure everyone here is familiar with how hard it is to get work done when you’re feeling unmotivated. Call it laziness, procrastination or what have you, when motivation is lacking, work simply can’t be done. It’s easy to write off a lack of motivation as an excuse to partake in laziness, but the cause of our motivation (or lack thereof) is largely a part of brain anatomy and chemistry. And the good news is, if you’re struggling to stay motivated, you can train your brain to do better.

Let’s take a journey into the human mind and examine the neuroscience of motivation. By understanding how our brain processes and regulates our motivation, we can create better habits that enhance our productivity and foster an invigorating, positive work environment.

The Motivated Brain

“Within our brains we have an emotionally sensitive switching station, called the amygdala, which lies deep within the limbic system. In the absence of high stress or fear, the amygdala directs incoming information to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC’s role then is to turn that information into long-term memory or process it through the cognitive and emotional control networks of the higher functions within our brain. That then allows us to either respond or ignore it.”

According to Griffiths, the reflective brain response that spurs motivation cannot take place during high-stress emotional states. And wouldn’t you know it, both frustration and boredom are both associated with high stress levels within the amygdala.

Inside the Brain of a Slacker

Motivation and stress don’t go hand-in-hand; that much we know. But what about those people who regularly demonstrate either higher-than-average or lower-than-average levels of motivation? A study at Vanderbilt University sought to discover just that.

In the study, scientists mapped out the brains of both “go-getters” and self-proclaimed “slackers”. The study revealed that the so-called “go-getters”, who were generally willing to work hard for rewards, had high dopamine levels both in their prefrontal cortexes and in their striatum, which are both areas linked to motivation and rewards. As for the “slackers”, dopamine was only find in the anterior insula, the part of the brain that is associated with emotion and risk perception.

Why Motivation Fluctuates

Motivation levels correlated to two things: the perceived difficulty of the task at hand and the perceived reward that will come from achieving that task. When the reward isn’t notable, motivation will be lower. Motivation will also be lower if the task is perceived to be very difficult.

So how do we override how our brain processes tasks to increase our levels of motivation? There are a few ways.

How to Increase Your Motivation

1. Set Achievable Goals

Because our motivation levels are tied to the perceived difficulty of a task, the first thing that you can do to increase motivation is to break down your given task into more manageable chunks.

2. Set Rewards for Yourself

Second, you want to increase the rewards at stake. For each small task, reward yourself with something small: a sweet treat, a cup of coffee or even a funny YouTube video. Also set a larger reward for yourself when the entire large task is completed. Having a proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” will help your brain to stay motivated so you can keep on track.

3. Train Your Brain

How we talk to ourselves matters, especially when it comes to motivation. As management coach Jon Pratlett notes, your brain reacts differently when you say “I am…” as opposed to “I feel…”:

“Research suggests that when our brain’s fight/flight response is activated and we become aware of it, saying to ourselves ‘I am angry,’ ‘I’m frustrated’, or ‘I’m sad’ is only likely to perpetuate the threate response.”

This is because when you make an “I am” statement, you are making a statement about your identity, which implies permanence. On the other hand, making “I feel” statements underscore the idea that what you feel in that moment is tied to a fleeting emotion rather than a personal state.

So train your brain to be motivated with positive self-talk. Say “I am motivated” as opposed to “I feel motivated”, and reap the benefits of a motivated identity.

Conclusion

When it comes to motivation, your mindset matters. The more you tell yourself that the task at hand will be boring or difficult, the more your brain sets out to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy. By changing your mindset and working with, rather than against the way your brain naturally motivates your actions, you can revitalize your work habits and be more motivated all around.

]]>“The Science of Sound, Part 2” White Paper: Noise in the Workplace and the Promise of Mobile Conferencinghttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/05/the-science-of-sound-part-2/
Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/the-science-of-sound-part-2/The modern workplace as constantly awash with sound, from the chatter of colleagues to the clacking of keyboards. When focused, complex work is on your to-do list, the last thing you need is distracting background noises preventing your productivity. Noise can be a detriment to efficiency, and if you read The Science of Sound, Part 1, …

]]>The modern workplace as constantly awash with sound, from the chatter of colleagues to the clacking of keyboards. When focused, complex work is on your to-do list, the last thing you need is distracting background noises preventing your productivity. Noise can be a detriment to efficiency, and if you read The Science of Sound, Part 1, you already know that the sounds around us (and the quality of those sounds) can have a drastic impact on our work, health and even our overall well-being.

Our ears, unlike our eyes, don’t have a way to shut out stimuli. There is no equivalent to eyelids for our ears that allow us to shut out sound. Our ears are “always on”, constantly taking in the sounds around us and analyzing their meaning. And the sounds you experience while you’re in the office can play a significant role in shaping how you communicate, collaborate and concentrate.

In The Science of Sound, Part 2, we investigate how noise in the workplace can hinder your productivity and concentration — and we will teach you how to deal with unwanted workplace noise. Additionally, you will learn how mobile conferencing empowers the worker on the go and can alleviate problems associated with noise and sound quality on conference calls. To learn more about how to maximize your productivity and cope with your noisy office, read The Science of Sound, Part 2 white paper.

]]>5 Presentation Tips from the Expertshttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/05/5-presentation-tips-from-the-experts/
Fri, 12 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/5-presentation-tips-from-the-experts/If you want to be successful in the business world, being able to give great presentations is an essential skill that will help you stand out and get noticed for your ideas. Presentations are a great way to provide value and share input with your company. But presentations don’t always come naturally, and even the …

]]>If you want to be successful in the business world, being able to give great presentations is an essential skill that will help you stand out and get noticed for your ideas. Presentations are a great way to provide value and share input with your company. But presentations don’t always come naturally, and even the best presenter still has areas where they could improve.

So whether you’re a total presentation newbie or a seasoned presentation pro just looking to refine your skills, here are a few tips from presentation experts to help you step up your presentation game.

Start with a Good Template

According to Alan Goeman, the CEO of eSlide.com, it’s essential to start with a good template when creating a presentation. Pick a template that handles design choices like font, font color, size, object and chart styles and theme. By thinking about that at the beginning, you can focus on what’s really important: the content.

Speak to the Average Audience Member

Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, recommends trying to speak to the average audience member and not focusing on the ones you most want to impress. Though an executive from your company might be in the front row, don’t focus on him. Try to speak to the mid-level employee a few rows back. It will keep you from getting too worked up or pressuring yourself.

Stick to Three Key Points

Jacqueline Whitmore from Entrepreneur suggests structuring your presentation around three key points. Pick your three main points that tell your story and make those the three pillars of your presentation. Start by introducing your three points, elaborate on each and then wrapping up by going over them once again. It makes your presentation more memorable and easier to understand.

Worry About Your Slides Last

TedTalk UX Lead and presentation pro Aaron Weyenberg says it’s best to save your slides for last. When preparing for a presentation, don’t even think about the slides until you already have a vision of what your presentation is going to sound like. You don’t want your slides to take center stage; you want your visuals to support a presentation that is already strong on its own. You should outline your structure, build up your argument with supporting points and practice your presentation. Once you’ve done all of the above, then it’s time to worry about your slides.

An Informational Image Is Worth a Thousand Words

It may be a cliché but according to Andrew Scivally from eLearningBrothers.com, when it comes to presentations, an image really is worth a thousand words. Most people are visual learners, and so the most effective way to convey your message is visually. Instead of worrying about choosing aesthetically pleasing images, focus instead on choosing informational images, like infographics, that teach your audience.

At the end of the day, giving good presentations is all about delivering your message in a clear, engaging way. By following the expert tips above, you are sure to give a riveting presentation that really sells your message and keeps the audience interested. So go forth, present!

]]>Customer Insights: Productivity Wish Listhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/05/customer-insights-productivity-wish-list/
Wed, 03 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/customer-insights-productivity-wish-list/Productivity isn’t one-size-fits-all, and to find your productivity sweet spot sometimes requires a bit of experimentation. From productivity “hacks” and time-management strategies to productivity-enhancing gadgets, there are endless ways to up your productivity game. Thanks to advances in technology, there are constantly cool, new gadgets hitting the market that can help streamline your productivity. We …

]]>Productivity isn’t one-size-fits-all, and to find your productivity sweet spot sometimes requires a bit of experimentation. From productivity “hacks” and time-management strategies to productivity-enhancing gadgets, there are endless ways to up your productivity game. Thanks to advances in technology, there are constantly cool, new gadgets hitting the market that can help streamline your productivity.

We recently polled some of our customers to see what’s at the top of their productivity wish lists to help eliminate procrastination. Check out our customers’ top picks:

1.) Cubii Smart Elliptical

The Cubii Smart Elliptical was, by far, the top choice amongst our customers in terms of “most wanted productivity gadget”. The Cubii Smart Elliptical sits right under your desk, poised to give you a workout and keep your blood pumping at a moment’s notice. The Cubii Smart Elliptical even comes with an app that tracks your workouts and can sync with Fitbit.

2.) LG 38” Ultra-Wide Display

The impressive LG 38” Ultra-Wide Display is fantastic (albeit pricey) option for those looking to expand their screen real estate. From graphic designers to data analysts, the LG 38” display is an absolute dream for the multi-tasking office worker.

3.) Plantronics Voyager 520

You may already have a Bluetooth headset, but I bet you don’t have a Bluetooth headset like the Plantronics Voyager 520. With just the press of a button, you can activate Siri or Google Assistant to do your administrative bidding. Additionally, the Plantronics Voyager 520 features top-notch sound quality, wind reduction and noise cancellation to help you eliminate the distractions and get your work done.

4.) Avido WiBa

In the age of BYOD, sometimes your myriad of devices (and respective charging cables) can be an overwhelming presence at your desk. Thanks to the Avido WiBa, your cord-wrangling days are over. The Avido WiBa is a wireless charging pad that will help you reduce cable clutter and charge your compatible devices directly on the pad.

5.) Das Keyboard 5Q

It seems that more and more of our technology these days falls into the “smart” device category, and why should your keyboard be left out? The Das Keyboard 5Q is a smart keyboard that lets you program the keys for app shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts have been a productivity-seeker’s best friend since the dawn of the computer, and the Das Keyboard 5Q takes your shortcut game to the next level.

6.) Logitech M330 Silent Plus Mouse

If you work in an open-plan office, you know how quickly the seemingly harmless sound of mouse clicks can become distracting when you’re trying to focus. The Logitech M330 Silent Plus Mouse is designed for those of you looking to reduce office noise. The Logitech mouse glides easily and clicks quietly (up to 90 percent quieter than the average mouse).

What’s on the top of your productivity wish list? We want to hear from you! Share your top productivity gadgets and hacks with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

]]>Why You’re Always Late (and How to Fix It)https://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/04/why-youre-always-late-and-how-to-fix-it/
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/why-youre-always-late-and-how-to-fix-it/When I first started doing research on this topic, I genuinely believed that late people just had total disregard for anyone’s time or that they were terrible at time management. Any Type A person, like me, believes in the mantra, “If you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late.” And if you’re that person, I bet …

]]>When I first started doing research on this topic, I genuinely believed that late people just had total disregard for anyone’s time or that they were terrible at time management. Any Type A person, like me, believes in the mantra, “If you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late.” And if you’re that person, I bet you have the same preconceived notion I do about those who are never on time to anything, including work.

But, what I found out from research has made me change my mind – something that I never thought I could do when it comes to punctuality. While the act of constantly being late is perceived as rude, it doesn’t necessarily mean said late person did it on purpose. There are actually several psychological and physiological components that can contribute to being perpetually late.

The Misunderstood Problem

Diana DeLonzor, author of Never Be Late Again, conducted her own research on the perpetually tardy. She told Huffington Post, “Lateness is a really a commonly misunderstood problem. Yes, it’s a rude act, but I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and the vast majority of late people really dislike being late, they try to be on time, but this is something that has plagued them throughout their lives.” She continues, “Telling a chronically late person to be on time is like telling a dieter, ‘Don’t eat so much.’”

According to DeLonzor, this problem often starts in childhood and may have something to do with the fundamental differences in the way people think. She wrote in her book:

“Part of my research included a test to measure the differences in how timely and late people perceive the passage of time. The test I devised is a simple one you can try yourself. Choose three or four pages in a book, mark the time, and start reading. Stop reading when you think ninety seconds have elapsed, then check your watch to see how accurate you were. I found that early birds, almost without fail, stopped reading before ninety ­seconds had passed, while lateniks put their books down well ­after the ninety-second mark.

The researchers at Cleveland State University also included a time perception test in their study, this time using stop-watches. Interestingly, their results were similar to mine, with late people consistently underestimating the passage of time.”

In the late 1990s, she led another study at San Francisco University where she found links between chronic tardiness and certain personality traits, including low self-control, thrill-seeking and anxiety. With this research, she was able to identify seven different types of late people:

The deadliner: someone who has a hard time motivating themselves without pressure, and then when they realize there’s no way they’re going to make it on time, their positivity turns to dread.

The producer: the person who constantly over-schedules their days.

The absent-minded professor: someone who may have a diagnosable condition, such as ADHD, and have a hard time staying on track from point A to point B.

The rebel: an uncommon subtype that actually enjoys being late because they like the idea of knowing the attention will be on them once they arrive.

The rationalizer: someone who will blame outside factors for their tardiness, like traffic jams.

The indulger: this type struggles with self-control, someone who just doesn’t feel like attending to the task at hand.

The evader: someone who tries to perfect the situation before leaving the house, like finding the right outfit or having their hair just so.

Fixing the Problem:

When it comes to addressing constant tardiness, it’s the way they think, not just their behavior, which needs to be addressed and reframed. Here are a few tips to reconfiguring the way the tardy can retrain their brain to be on time:

The cognitive trick: Associate being on time with positivity and less stress. Write down all the positive aspects of being on time. The physical act of acknowledging these pros on paper will motivate you to be one time.

Time your routine: Do you really know how long it takes you to get ready? As a consistently on-time person, I know it takes me approximately 30-40 minutes to get ready every morning from the time I open my eyes to having my keys in my hand to walk out the door. Like the tip before, write down your daily habits, how long it takes you to do them and spend a few weeks doing this. You’ll get into a habit of understanding your routine and allowing yourself plenty of time to complete it.

Rethink your timing: According to DeLonzor, timely people will give themselves round numbers to get somewhere, like 30 minutes. Those who are chronically late will budget exact times to get somewhere, a habit she calls “split second timing”. This type of time budgeting doesn’t account for factors that may pop up to delay your arrival. Training yourself to rethink how you perceive time could play a major factor in your punctuality.

Fixing tardiness, ironically, takes time. But with the help of this important research, it has become a little clearer as to why people have an issue with time and how they can address it. Are you someone who is chronically late? What do you think about the above research and do you identify with one of the subtypes of the chronically late? Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter and let us know.

]]>What is Hygge and Can It Be Used in Your Work Life?https://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/04/hygge/
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/hygge/It seems like every day I hear about a new “fad” or lifestyle trend that is guaranteed to make me more productive, mentally healthier and just overall happier. From cognitive tricks to get more done in 90 minutes than you have in 30 days to eating different foods to power you through an afternoon slump, …

]]>It seems like every day I hear about a new “fad” or lifestyle trend that is guaranteed to make me more productive, mentally healthier and just overall happier. From cognitive tricks to get more done in 90 minutes than you have in 30 days to eating different foods to power you through an afternoon slump, there’s always something to try to help make your work life that much more efficient.

And at PGi, it’s no secret that we’re fans of trying just about anything we come across to help us become more productive or less stressed during the workday – you’ve probably noticed that if you’ve visited our blog before. But one lifestyle trend that has been breaking into American homes and workplaces focuses on the idea of creating a comfortable, homey environment in which to live or work.

Hygge (pronounced hoo-gah), is a Danish lifestyle that centers on a few key elements to keep the mind happy and relationships healthy. And they should know, as the World Happiness Report by the United Nations ranks them as the happiest people on the planet.

Hygge doesn’t really translate into an English word, but the closest analog could be “coziness” or “hominess”. The best example of this concept is if you and your friends or family were enjoying each other’s company around a fireplace, candles lit, mug of hot cider and warm cookies in hand. No one is scrolling through their phones, they are all focused on the company in front of them.

Hygge mostly focuses on the home environment, and if you’re a remote worker, you can take all of the aforementioned cozy aspects of that scenario (warm blankets, your most comfortable clothes and mood lighting) to create a hygge space while you’re working. But for those who aren’t able to telework, there are some hygge elements you can use to change your work life (without disrupting your cubemates):

Good Lighting

Americans know good and well that candles scream fire hazard in the workplace, so, unfortunately, we have to find an alternative. Good lighting is incredibly important for your mood and overall physical health. Consider adding a lamp with an incandescent bulb to counteract the harsh overhead fluorescents and the glare from your computer screen.

Keep it Cozy

It may seem like a lot of the elements of hygge would work best in the winter, but if your office is anything like ours, the A/C is blowing constantly year round, so keeping a few cozy elements could really make you feel that much more at east. Consider keeping a small blanket or even just a scarf to have that can give you that cozy, more comfortable feeling while you’re at your desk.

Music that Makes You Happy

If your company allows, consider grabbing some headphones and tuning into music or white noise that comforts you. As a writer, music is critical to my productivity. I use Spotify Premium and cycle through their “Focus” playlists that include songs with instrumental beats or soothing pianos sonnets. More of a white noise person? Try simplynoise.com.

Communicate with Colleagues

A major factor of hygge is creating and maintaining healthy relationships with everyone around you. Your entire day doesn’t need to be heads down in your work, and in fact, that’s not very hygge at all. Remember to chat with your colleagues during the day – schedule a quick check in once a week with your favorite peer or mentor; grab a cup of morning coffee with someone you’d like to get to know better, or simply send a chat to a colleague who works in another office or is remote. These breaks in your day will strengthen your relationships with your coworkers and help you take your mind off work, even if it’s just for a few minutes.

Soak up Some Sun

This is something I personally struggle with doing. Like many of us, far too often, I just sit through the day at my desk with intermittent breaks to get coffee. But getting up and going outside to enjoy nature is an esteemed aspect of hygge. Once or twice a day, make a conscious effort to head outside and enjoy nature for a bit to refresh your senses.

Wait, Isn’t This What I Should be Doing Already?

Yes, you should, and I’m sure you’ve heard all of these separately as productivity tips. But, hygge is much more than just productivity tips – it’s really about putting yourself in a comfortable environment, surrounded things that make you happy and making those ever-important connections with the people you see every day to perpetuate a healthier workplace. It’s enjoying the simple comforts of life.

Try hygge for yourself, and let us know if you think it makes you happier during your work day. Join the conversation on Twitter by tweeting us @PGi. Happy hygge!

]]>Productivity and Food: The Proof’s in the Puddinghttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/02/productivity-food-proofs-pudding/
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/productivity-food-proofs-pudding/Think back to the most productive day you’ve had this week. What are some of the things you remember doing that boosted your productivity? Maybe you tuned out the world with some soulful jazz or took a break and walked around the block to get fresh air and a fresh perspective. But do you remember …

]]>Think back to the most productive day you’ve had this week. What are some of the things you remember doing that boosted your productivity? Maybe you tuned out the world with some soulful jazz or took a break and walked around the block to get fresh air and a fresh perspective. But do you remember what you ate?

When we think about our productivity each day, our minds typically don’t jump to give our food choices a 5-star Yelp review for the role they played in keeping us efficient. For most of us, food just keeps our stomachs from growling awkwardly in a big meeting or prevents us from getting hangry. Well, as it turns out, that’s pretty far from accurate.

What you put in your body every day directly affects your mood, energy and overall cognitive performance, similar to how the gasoline you choose affects your car’s performance. Imagine living in a world where you could hop over to a BP station and choose fuel that either gives you the ability to avoid all traffic or fuel that only allows you to get around at a top speed of 15 miles per hour. Your choice of gasoline wouldn’t be so offhanded, so why is it that our weekday food choices are?

Breaking Down the Science

Intuitively, we know that when we eat a heap of French fries, creamy bowl of pasta or triple-stack burger, we’re probably going to drift away into a food coma shortly after getting back to our desks — leaving us useless until it’s time to clock out.

The short synopsis of why this happens is as follows: pretty much every morsel you consume is converted into glucose, which gives us the energy to stay focused. When our glucose “tank” hits low, we end up getting a distracted, can’t-focus feeling. And while that remains fairly obvious, the part we don’t pay much attention to is that our bodies don’t process all foods at the same rate.

Some foods, like the carby goodness that is a bowl of Alfredo pasta, will release their glucose quickly, which gives us a short burst of energy followed by a dramatic slump. Other meals that are high in fat, like cheeseburgers, will provide sustainable energy, but because our digestive system has to work harder to consume them, our body reduces oxygen levels in our brain to focus more energy on digestion, giving you that groggy, food coma effect.

Most of us know we shouldn’t be eating heavy, high-carb and fatty foods during the middle of the day, but when your glucose levels are low, your brain isn’t exactly functioning at its highest capacity. This leads to lack of self-control, which then leads to us picking meals that seem efficient — like a basket of fries.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

These quick, efficient and cheap meals seem like a great idea in the heat of the moment when your body is starving for energy, but in the long run, we compromise our performance for the rest of the day. So, what can you do? It’s simple: if you fail to plan, plan to fail.

Full disclosure: I used to roll my eyes every time I saw some workout guru or productivity freak post that on Instagram or Pinterest. But, it’s the type of action plan you really need to integrate into your lifestyle to make sure you’re as efficient as possible. Here’s a few ways you can become more strategic about the “fuel” you’re putting into your tank:

Meal Prep:

If you’ve made it this far without rolling your eyes, I bet you did after reading that. I know, we’re all busy, it’s hard to make time to meal prep for a week. But think of it this way: the amount of time you waste feeling foggy because of a heavy midday meal could’ve been spent meal prepping instead. Setting time aside to plan meals for the week is a lifestyle change that will save you time, money and workday efficiency.

If you absolutely don’t have time to meal prep, or you’ve forgotten your lunch, plan out what you’re going to eat for lunch before you go out and get it. Studies show that we’re a lot better at resisting salty and fatty cravings if we plan ahead.

Graze:

Instead of letting your glucose hit rock bottom before lunch time, graze on healthy snacks. You’ll perform better throughout the day because you’ll be avoiding peaks and drops in your blood sugar levels. Smaller, more frequent meals are the way to go if you’re looking to maintain a consistent glucose level for productivity.

Track:

Download a food tracker app like MyFitnessPal. Why? Well, the more cognizant you are about what you’re eating, the more you’ll hold yourself accountable. Most people think of food trackers as a fad to help lose weight, but for this purpose, understanding what foods put some pep in your step versus those that tend to slow you down, will help you maintain a level of all-day

Eating the right things can be hard, especially with the temptation that plagues us every day. But if you’re really serious about stepping up your productivity game, it may be time to take a step back and reassess the fuel you’re using to keep you going on a daily basis. Chances are you’ll not only feel more productive, but you’ll have more energy and see some changes in your overall health as well.

]]>Why Working in 90-Minute Bursts is Good for Your Brain & Your Jobhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/02/working-90-minute-burst-good-brain-job/
Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/working-90-minute-burst-good-brain-job/We’ve all been victim to the misery that is the “afternoon slump”. We’ve struggled through the slump, eyes heavy with fatigue, as we trudged to the office coffee pot, hopeful that a sweet cup of liquid caffeine would give us our fix and get us back on task. What if I told you that next …

]]>We’ve all been victim to the misery that is the “afternoon slump”. We’ve struggled through the slump, eyes heavy with fatigue, as we trudged to the office coffee pot, hopeful that a sweet cup of liquid caffeine would give us our fix and get us back on task. What if I told you that next time an afternoon slump hits, you should succumb to it rather than fight it?

You’ve probably heard of circadian rhythms, or the natural biological clock that dictates your sleep cycles. We also have biological cycles called ultradian rhythms that involve alternating periods of high- and low-frequency brain activity. An ultradian cycle generally consists of around 90 minutes of high-frequency brain activity, during which it is much easier to focus and get your tough work done. This period is followed by a period of low-frequency brain activity, usually lasting around 20 minutes. During these periods of low-frequency brain activity, it is not uncommon to feel unfocused and have difficulty concentrating.

Ultradian rhythms are thought to be controlled by the delicate balance of potassium and sodium that exists in our bodies. When you have a productive period of hard work during your day, after a while, the potassium and sodium balance is disrupted because your brain has been functioning in a high brain wave state for an extended period of time.

To compensate, your brain puts on the brakes and shifts down into a state of lower brain wave frequencies because, put simply, your brain needs a break. When this happens, you may feel a general sense of fogginess or like you’re struggling to concentrate. Once your brain has been allowed to rest, the sodium and potassium balance is restored and you are better able to shift back into productivity mode.

The Importance of Listening to Your Brain

So next time your afternoon slump hits, lean into it — it’s your brain saying “I need a break!” If you ignore the rest phase of your ultradian rhythm, the consequences can seriously hamper your productivity. If you ignore the rest phase of your ultradian rhythm and try to keep working, it triggers the body’s “fight-or-flight” response and releases the stress hormone cortisol.

And guess what goes out the window when “fight-or-flight” mode activates? Logic. Because, let’s face it, when you’re in an emergency, it’s instinct and not logic that will help save your life. So by ignoring your body’s signals and working through a period of time when your brain should be resting, you are not only creating undue stress for yourself, but you are also trying to get work done while working without the help of logic.

Take a Break!

So if your brain is telling you “Rest me!” and you don’t listen, you’re just making things harder on yourself. And even worse, you could be costing your company money. According to Health Advocate, Inc., presenteeism, or being on the job but not functioning at your usual level of productivity, costs companies $150 billion annually in lost productivity.

A whopping 90 percent of workers don’t take a defined break during the day. We simply aren’t capable of working an eight hour day without stopping to take a breath; our brains just aren’t built for it. So when you hit a wall and can’t seem to focus anymore, take it as a sign that your brain needs a rest. Get up and take a walk or go make a cup of coffee. Let your brain take a break while you answer some emails. By working in 90-minute bursts, your brain gets to function at full capacity and you will maximize your productivity without burning yourself out.

]]>“Being Busy” is Counterintuitive: Here’s How to Prevent It from Ruining Your Productivityhttps://www.pgi.com/blog/2017/02/being-busy-counterintuitive-prevent-it-from-ruining-productivity/
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000http://wwwpgi.wpengine.com/blog/being-busy-counterintuitive-prevent-it-from-ruining-productivity/In our fast-paced, always-on, multi-tasking society, we see being “busy” as a sort of badge of honor. A badge that earns respect amongst your peers because if you’re busy, you’re obviously doing something right. But is “being busy” really all it’s cracked up to be? Staying busy is a necessary evil in most our lives. …

]]>In our fast-paced, always-on, multi-tasking society, we see being “busy” as a sort of badge of honor. A badge that earns respect amongst your peers because if you’re busy, you’re obviously doing something right. But is “being busy” really all it’s cracked up to be?

Staying busy is a necessary evil in most our lives. Most of us feel that if we’re not doing something, we’re missing out on some sort of opportunity — an opportunity that may have no actual end goal. And that’s why, far too often, what’s keeping us busy isn’t actually that important.

“Most of us have no problem with being busy, but we’re often busy on the wrong things,” says Angie Morgan, coauthor of Spark: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success. “You could spend nine to five just emailing, but that’s not driving results or moving you toward longer, bigger goals. When people say, ‘I’m so busy,’ it really means, ‘I’m a poor planner,’ or, ‘I don’t know how to prioritize or delegate.’”

In fact, according to a Gallup Poll, sixty-one percent of working Americans say they don’t have enough time to do the things they want. Why? Because consuming ourselves with busywork and not prioritizing or delegating tasks actually decreases our ability to be efficient during our day-to-day.

How to Identify Busywork

Renee Cullinan, co-founder of the management and work-practices consulting firm Stop Meeting Like This, says, “Busywork has a double negative impact.” She says busywork “consumes time that could be better spent on other things, and it drains energy. Longer term, it breeds a work culture that values activity over results and busyness over effectiveness.”

In order to stop busywork from impeding upon your productivity, you must first identify it. Cullinan says busywork typically fits one of these three scenarios:

You don’t have a clear objective or end goal of what you’re doing

The effort to complete the task is disproportionally high compared to the actual outcome it will produce

The team seems to be swimming upstream or running in place; missing deadlines because of inefficiencies (especially like reply all chains or status meetings that get nowhere)

Addressing the Busywork

The most important aspect to eliminating busywork is to address its purpose and importance. Ask yourself, does this tie into your work or does this clearly align with supporting business priorities? If it doesn’t fit into one of these two categories, it’s likely a form of busywork — which could give you reason to push back on the priority level of the task.

First, though, seek clarity on the objective of the task before pushing back. “Rather than going to your manager and saying, ‘This is crap and not the best use of my time,’ get some insight as to why it’s important,” says Morgan. “You may not see the direct value, but that doesn’t always mean it doesn’t exist.”

Understanding the priority level of the task at hand will help you better manage your time to get all the little things done. And if you see that the problems are daily work practices, learn to optimize your time further by only attending meetings where your role is clear. Remove yourself from email chains that don’t warrant your final say or lists and subscriptions that aren’t applicable to your job role.

Getting a Handle on Busywork

Unfortunately, there is going to be busywork that you can’t avoid forever. But the key to handling these tasks to prioritizing. Personally, I keep a running list of what I’m doing — and I mean everything that I’m doing. If I don’t have time to respond to an email right away because I’m in the middle of writing a blog post, I make note of it. Keeping a simple “wish list” of low priority tasks will keep your priorities in check.

Knock these items out while you’re waiting on people to dial-in to your conference call, or later in the day when you’re running out of creative steam and hitting a productivity crash. Doing these seemingly meaningless tasks during quick five- to 10-minute intervals will help you stay in control of your workload and save you a lot of time at the end of the day.

When it boils down to it, like Morgan said, busywork is a direct product of poor planning. Take time to identify your daily priorities, take those lower tier items and work on them in short intervals. You’ll end of feeling less stressed and more accomplished at the end of your day.

Looking for more tips to staying productive? Check out the articles below: